[Syd Thrift]

IME if the player doesn’t want to sign with you, he’ll usually say so straight away. Are we sure this is that issue, because it sounds like a player just “forgets” about the first offer.

How long after your offers are these signings occurring? If they’re within a few days, I think the player just took the lower offer for whatever reason - playing closer to his home, maybe, he doesn’t see how he’d start for your team, etc. Maybe the game even invokes a little random chance on the end, even when the offer is not close (although if you’re talking about a modern league, $1.8M for one year is still relatively close to $900k for the same 1 year deal). I’d still like to see a better explanation when he sends you that email back saying he’s decided to sign elsewhere, although if random chance is involved that make things tough (“your offer was better but I decided to sign with the A’s anyway, sorry”).